Storm Damage Reporting

The National Weather Service needs are help, whether you are a ham, weather spotter or an individual who seen storm situations and damage they may of caused.  The below link is the short report you can fill out and send to the weather station in your area, be it Anchorage or Fairbanks.

This is valuable information, especially if a dollar value can be added to the damage assessments (realistic not just inflated for effect).  There is a section in the storm report page just for high winds.

https://www.weather.gov/aprfc/submit?site=afc

 

Harry/AL6F

Alaska SKYWARN Manager

Ideas for General Meetings

Chris/KL5BF, our VP is looking for ideas for programs at the meetings, so let her know what you would like to see or an idea we can put together.  May 29th will be our last regular meeting due to summer activities.  We take June and July off except for the MARA Annual Picnic will be in July.  We have the Motley Picnic coming up 27-28th June. Field Day is that same weekend.  Location has not been selected yet.  The Motley Picnic will be at Tolsona Campground near Glennallen again this year.

Chignik Bay & Sand Point Tuesday Night Earthquake (COMPLETED)

Bushmaster Operations was activated last night, the 21st to support Earthquake and possible Tsunami on the Aleutian Chain to affect Homer and Cook Inlet area,  last night around 2300 by the SEOC.  KL7EOC/KL5T alerted us to the earthquake.  We establish nets on 3920, 147.30, 147.33, Winlink, 223.6 and DMR/AK TG3102.  KL7JFT started logging in contacts from Valdez, Homer, Anchor Point, Big Delta, & Kodiak.  We had supporting stations coming up on the VHF net.  KL4B verified that HF Winlink was available to KL7GRM and KL7EDK. KL4RCS maintain contact with Public TV and Radio to feed us information.  Kodiak/WL7R got us the coordinates of the earthquake and details.  It 7.8 ;75 miles SW of Chignik Bay, Secondary quake happen at Sand Point, 6.1.  The Tsunami was to hit between 2230 and 2320 in the Kodiak and Homer Area and possibly come up Cook inlet. KL2T reported the siren had went off on the Homer Spit and evacuations began.  WL7R reported the same in Kodiak.  KL7GRM Winlink was operational and he brought up the Eagle Packet Node for backup.  KL5T monitored the 147.30 net with KL4E's assistance out of Eagle River.  All stations maintained a good watch from their areas, propagation was excellent on 3920.  As conditions changed the NCs were kept in formed. at about 2330/0100 the outlying stations began to report the Tsunami warnings were being closed down.  KL7EOC/KL5T reported the SEOC closed down the nets and would work the support issues on the chain thru their channels.  The next morning reports were compiled and submitted.  At the request of AG6SV/Ken, the Saturn Comm Coordinator, reports were forward to him, which were further sent to FEMA, Salvation Army HQ and Washington D.C.  Operations secured at 0100 the 22nd.  All stations used excellent net procedures and discipline, A "Well Done" to everyone.  Thanks for the support.   Don/KL7JFT MATSU DEC

ALASKA 60 METER FREQ TEST ON 5167.5 KHZ

WL7PM/Dean will be net control. The  5167.5 60 meter frequency is an Alaska only frequency that can be used within 50 nautical miles of the Alaska Coast and anywhere in Alaska.  150 watts is the maximum power allowed. A dipole can be constructed out of wire at 82.5 FEET total. it can be fed with ladder wire or coax, depending on what your tuner will handle.  The Net will start at 1000-1100 on the last Saturday of every month.  Report any results if you make contact or not, so we can determine the usefulness of the frequency, to Dean.

2018 Sutton Emergency Preparedness Fair (COMPLETED)

Saturday, June 16 will be the Sutton Emergency Preparedness Fair.  We will be setting up both trailers.  This will be a dress rehearsal for the MARA Field Day.  We need folks to show up at the Sutton Library about 0900, tear down will be around 1600.  We will be training folks on tower installation, generator ops, beam and wire antennas, and equipment operations. This training will be critical for a good field day operation.  Please contact Don/KL7JFT if you can attend.

Don/KL7JFT

MATSU DEC

Hams Connecting Across the Air and Sea

During Field Day 2017, I learned a little bit of Palmer and ham radio history from Mayor Edna Devries. Then a few days later there was a post on Facebook by the granddaughter of of the ham.

In August of 1977, Edward Holmes, KL7HFX, who lived in Palmer, had contact with Mutsuhiro Ishiguro in Saroma, Japan and this led to the two cities becoming sister cities.

                                        

Additional information can be found at www.cityofpalmer.org/sistercityprogram